Spurs boss Juande Ramos last night insisted Dimitar Berbatov will see out the season at White Hart Lane despite the forward's subdued display in their defeat at Villa Park.

Bulgarian international hitman Berbatov, who has 11 goals this term, missed a superb chance yesterday and his negative body language backed up claims by the player's agent Emil Danthchev that his man wants to quit for Manchester United after stalling on a new deal.

But Ramos is determined to retain the £44,000-aweek marksman, signed from Bayer Leverkusen for £10.9million in July 2006, and insists he will honour his original fouryear contract which ties him to the club until 2010.

Ramos said: "Bebatov's agent is looking to do his business and he is making these comments, but we are happy because we have the player on a contract and we plan to keep him."

Ramos plans to strengthen Tottenham's squad rather than sell and knows bolstering his side's defence is the priority following their reverse at Villa where they conceded from two set-pieces.

Spurs' poor defending allowed Olof Mellberg and Martin Laursen to head in either side of a Jermain Defoe goal and was infuriating for Ramos after his side leaked three goals from set pieces in their 6-4 win over Reading.

"This is a situation which has been repeated in the past few weeks," he added. "It is hard to win matches conceding so many goals from set pieces.

"We are lacking in defence and it is something we are looking to address - either in the squad or by bringing in new players. I am not happy because I have lost. We have come back from a goal down and we have created chances. A draw would be have been a fairer result."